


Desperate Measures

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 01:15:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7664632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex tries to get into Pandoria via Guardians Dale with explosive results. Takes place before SSO.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Desperate Measures

“Have you found anything yet?” Alex asked her friend.

“Uhh…” Linda’s voice trailed off as she looked through the papers and books that were scattered over the desk. “Yes, actually. Here.” She picked up a piece of paper which held an image that she’d photocopied out of an old book.

“What’s this?” asked Alex, looking down at the piece of paper. “Looks kinda like the place that Anne described when she first went to Pandoria.”

“It’s called Guardians Dale,” said Linda. “Only it’s located in a very hard-to-reach location.”

“Elaborate,” said Alex. Linda shook her head with a smile, knowing that Alex was going no matter how hard to reach this place was.

“Okay, so you know the Inn by the Bridge?” asked Linda.

“You mean the one that’s inaccessible now because of Sabine?” asked Alex.

“You’re as much to blame as she is for the bridge collapsing. But yet, that one,” said Linda.

“I know another way there. What about it?” asked Alex.

“Well, if you follow the road left, you’ll find a gate. Past that gate is a land called Epona,” Linda explained.

“I know where Epona is,” said Alex. “Everyone does. So Guardians Dale is in there?”

“Yes,” said Linda. “Once you manage to get past the fence, there’s a path branching off from the main road. It’s just a grass path though, so you won’t know it when you see it.”

“Do you have a map?” asked Alex.

“Fortunately, yes,” said Linda, sliding over another piece of paper. She pointed to a spot on it. “This is a satellite image from Joogle Earth. This spot here is the start of the path, just follow it and you’ll reach the Dale. But don’t go too fast, the way is quite twisty.”

“Okay. Thanks Lin, I’ll get going,” said Alex, moving to stand up.

“But don’t you want to know what to do once you’re there?” asked Linda. “And anyway, it won’t work. We need all four of us to open the portal.”

“I don’t care,” said Alex. “I’ve got to try something, Linda, I can’t just sit here doing nothing.”

“I know,” said Linda. “How do you even know that she’s in there?”

“Because she wouldn’t just go silent on me like this,” said Alex. “You know that we have some kind of bond that transcends everything. I can’t even feel her through that. It’s just like when she was in Pandoria that first time.”

“The bond is only with our soul mate, our horse,” said Linda. “Isn’t it?”

“No, there’s another one that links the four of us,” said Alex. “Like I can feel when you’re here. If I can’t feel you, then I know that something’s wrong.” 

“I don’t have that,” said Linda. “Why don’t I have that?”

“I don’t know,” said Alex. “But I do. Lisa does too. And so does Anne.”

“This is weird,” Linda announced. “I’m going to ask the druids about it. But first I have to tell you what to do.” She pointed at the picture of the Dale. “Behind this big winged unicorn statue is a staircase. At the top of the staircase, a portal will appear once all four seals are activated.” She pointed out the spots on the picture, finally naming each seal.

“Great. Thanks. I know what I’m going to do now,” said Alex, grabbing the map and picture and shoving them into her backpack.

“Okay. Good luck,” said Linda. She knew that it would end badly, but there was no talking Alex out of this. She decided not to waste her breath. And Alex didn’t die in any of the possible outcomes, so she’d be okay.

Alex rode down towards the Riding Hall with a plan firmly in mind. She was going to find the Dale the long way, there was no way that Ed was going to give her the code to the gate after all. Tin Can’s hooves splashed through the river behind the Riding Hall, and then he sped across the Forgotten Fields and past the Goldspurs. They made it to the gate in record time.

Alex carefully led Tin Can through the tiny gap in the rocks, and then mounted him again and rode through Stormgarden. Tin Can vaulted the fence quite easily, neither of them minding the angry girl with a shotgun, and Alex lit a small light orb in her hand so that she could see better.

The Mirror Marshes were very difficult to navigate, even in the daytime. There were signs, though. Alex got the map out and looked at it. The place closest to the Dale that was on the signs was the Eastern Slopes, so she went there. The bugs avoided her. Lightning magic was very useful for things like that.

“Here it is,” said Alex as Tin Can trotted onto the path. “We’re almost there, boy.” She grinned, feeling excitement and hope flutter in her belly for the first time in ages.

Just as Linda had said, the way into the Dale was twisty. But when she got to the end, she almost couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

Alex blinked to activate her Shadow Sight, then winced at how bright it was. The Dale had the four horse statues, each one marked with runes of great power, but it also had a roof that protected it from prying eyes. That, too, was heavily warded. After passing through the horse statues, Alex found herself in front of the winged horse statue. It was massive, and marked with the runes of all four Soul Riders. The wings themselves were at least twice as large as the one on the Sun statue. The horn was also much longer and sharper than the one on the Star statue.

“I think that this is Aideen’s horse,” said Tin Can.

“You and me both,” said Alex. “I almost feel unworthy to be in its presence, and it’s just a statue.”

“Well, we shouldn’t let ourselves be too caught up in gawking at statues,” said Tin Can. “We came here for a reason, after all.”

“You’re right,” said Alex. She walked Tin Can around the statue, grateful that her Shadow Sight enabled her to see through the purple fog easily, and stopped in front of the staircase.

“That’s a lot of stairs,” said Tin Can.

“Yes it is,” said Alex. But she was more interested in the symbols. “Okay, I’m gonna try something. Linda said that it’ll only work for all four of us, but I’m gonna try anyway. I’ve got to.”

“I know,” said Tin Can. He lowered his head. “Fire away.”

Alex’s palms lit with her magic and she took a deep breath to steady herself. Then, she fired a beam of magic at the Lightning symbol. It glowed with power instantly, showing up as a green in her Shadow Sight. She also saw trickles of blue energy heading up the lines carved into the gate-like structure.

“One down,” Alex murmured. The Sun symbol accepted her power too, though a little less easily than the Lightning one had. It glowed an unsteady purple, and the power crackled as it fed up the gate. The Star symbol flared red quite alarmingly upon receiving her power, and then pulsed with an unsteady light that alternated between bright and dark red. Alex could only see the difference because one red was like molten rock. It looked angry. The energy that it fed into the gate felt bad too. Like an infection.

“Four,” Alex whispered, and fired energy into the Moon symbol. The dark green energy felt almost as sick as the red one. Nevertheless, it, too, travelled up the gate.

The four energies coalesced at the top, and Alex waited, barely daring to breathe. At last, they formed a portal.

“I did it,” said Alex, beginning to grin.

The portal sparked.

“Oh no,” said Tin Can, watching the portal tremble. “Alex, shield.” Alex was too busy staring at the portal. “Shield!” He pranced in place uncomfortably, then cantered around the massive horse statue and hit behind it. Maybe Aideen would protect them.

At the last moment, Alex put up a shield. It only just covered her and Tin Can, and the front hooves of the horse statue. The golden colour of the shield reflected off her face, which was already streaked with tears. She’d failed. Maybe even broken the portal gate. She could feel the crushing guilt weighing her down already. She may have just broken the only way into Pandoria, ruining their chances of rescuing Anne and Lisa forever. She could already hear the chastising tones of the council.

Alex was so wrapped up in her own guilt that she barely heard the explosion behind them. But Tin Can turned around, and Alex had no choice but to see what was happening. Excess magic exploded out from the portal in what looked like a massive laser. Wards had already sprung up around the four horse statues. But not this one. Aideen protected people, but apparently not herself. The beam of magic collided with the nearest object, and the horse statue didn’t stand a chance. It exploded, just like the portal had, only a statue exploding tended to cause a lot more damage due to debris. Only the front hooves were unaffected, thanks to being inside the shield. The rest of it flew upwards, fracturing the roof. Bits of the roof embedded in the walls, forming a kind of second roof. The head of the statue landed in front of Alex, staring up at her accusingly. And then it disintegrated. Alex had the feeling that she would have been vaporised too if she’d been out there.

When the rumbling at last died down, Alex dropped her shield.

“I failed,” she said quietly, looking at Tin Can’s neck. But her eyes kept going back to the destroyed statue. “The druids are going to kill me.”

“Not if they don’t find out what you did,” said Tin Can.

“Oh yeah, and let the guilt eat me up inside. No, I’ll tell them what happened and just accept my punishment. Because nothing they can do is as bad as knowing that I failed her,” said Alex, wiping her eyes. More tears came anyway. 

“Well, if you think that it is best that they know, then we’ll tell them,” said Tin Can. He cantered back out of the Dale, knowing that he’d have to find the way home himself. And then he heard rumbling thunder and stopped, snorting. “Please do not teleport us directly to the Stone Circle.”

“I can’t anyway,” said Alex. She sniffled, and then energy travelled through them and left them in the Forgotten Fields. She would tell the druids what had happened. Just as soon as she could even think about it without crying. Tears wouldn’t help her cause, not with the druids. They’d just make her look even more like an inexperienced little girl unfit for her title.

“You tried, and that’s the important thing,” said Tin Can. His words did not reassure her. If anything, they only made her cry harder.

“Yeah, I tried and I failed,” said Alex. “I’m never going to get them back. I can’t even convince the druids that they’re in Pandoria.”

“That’s because the druids are too scared of Pandoria to even consider it,” said Tin Can. “At least you had the guts to try. At least you did something instead of sitting around doing nothing.”

“Yeah, I blew up a statue of our fucking goddess. That’s really going to endear them to me,” said Alex. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they kicked me out of the Keepers.”

“You are on thin ice with them already,” Tin Can admitted. “But they can’t exactly do anything without the Lightning Soul Rider.”

“Or they could just kill me,” said Alex.

“But again, that would leave them without Lightning,” said Tin Can. “They might disagree with what you do, but they can’t afford to lose you.”

“Unless they can,” said Alex. “We don’t know what the Keepers are capable of. They could hypnotise me, make me obedient to them. Something horrible like that. And what’s stopping them? They have every right to.”

“We could run away,” said Tin Can.

“No,” said Alex. “I’m not a coward. Just- just let me cry, okay? Then we can go up there and accept our fate.”

“Okay,” said Tin Can. “You know best, after all.” There was nothing that he could say to calm his rider. All he could do was let her cry and try to send her calming thoughts. He looked up at the stars and sent a silent plea for Aideen to help. Maybe she could do something from wherever she was now.


End file.
